Valved pipe coupling



March 18, 9 D. F. GEIGER E'i' AL VALVED PIPE COUPLING Filed April 28,1944 2 Sheets-Sheet l H. :3 WN

INVENTORS:

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D. F. GEIGER ETAL VALVED PIPE dourmu Filed April 28, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet2 J f ENTOR 152G281; (LE-us fit om 5y.

I I -I Patented Mar. 18, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE VALVED PIPECOUPLING David F. Geiger and Glenn 0. True, Long Beach, Calif.

ApplicationApril 28, 1944, Serial No-..533,2127

Our invention relates to improvements in couplings of that type having aquick acting interlocking connection. An object of the invention is toprovide means for easily and quickly connecting the members of a pair offluid transmitting ducts against high pressure so that fluid under highpressure can be transmitted and so that disconnection can be easily andquickly made, without material loss or leakage of the fluid when makingor breaking a connection. Another ob- 1 Claim. (Cli 28419) ject is toprovide means for equalizing pressure connecting or disconnecting themembers of the coupling. Other objects of the invention will be apparentfrom the following description.

Our improvement thus provides a master check valve which closesautomatically when two sections of a hose or other duct aredisconnected. During the act of reassembling a small by-pass valve isfirst made to positively open automatically, thus tending to equalizethe pressure on opposite sides of the master valve, whereby themaster'valve of larger area is caused to open more freely and in a moreefficient manner than otherwise .to complete an unobstructed connectionwithout loss or reduction of fluid pressure.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, Fig. lis a side elevation of our improved coupling showing portions of twosections of a hose connected thereby; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal centralsection on an enlarged scale of our improved structure; Fig, 3 is acentral longitudinal section, like in Fig. 2,showing portions of the twosections of our improved coupling when disconnected; Fig. 4 is an endelevation of the male member of our improved coupling; Fig. 5 is an endelevation of the female member of the coupling; Fig. 6 is an endelevation looking at the spider element on the check valve structureemployed in the female memberof the coupling; Fig. 7 is a section takenon the line 1-1 ofFig. 8, and Fig. 8 is an end view of, the resilientpacking element shown in Fig. 7.

In the drawings A. indicates the male member motion l2 in the usualmanner.

and B the female member of our improved coupling. The male member has acylindrical coupling nozzle ID projecting forwardly as a con,- tinuationof the cylindrical tubular seat ll, said seat in turn as shown beingintegral with a rearwardly extending tubular hose connection l2 or othersuitable means of connection with a duct with which it may be desired tomake connection. As shown a section of hose l3 to be connected by thecoupling is, shown attached to the hose con- The female memberof thecoupling has an annular socket member I4 which is provided with anannular bore [5 corresponding With the nozzle to receive the latterforwardly into connection with the female member-of the union. Thesocket member M has a forwardly extending hollow cylindrical'body It,the inner forward end of which is internally threaded at ll to receivethe, threaded body ill of thelhose connection l9, or other means ofconnection with a duct by which itmay be desired to make connection witha source of fluid under pressure.

A fluid tight connection is made by a resilient I packing annulus 20,which is. freely replaceable in the body It. The flat end 2| of theannulus is seated against an annular abutment 22 in the socket member Il. The bore 23 of the annulus corresponds with the outer sidesurface'of' the nozzle l0 to slidably receive or permit free removal ofthe latter into or from the female memberofthe coupling, The outerportion of the packing annulus has an outer forward tapering end 24* andan annular seat 25 A thin cylindrical inner sleeve 26 is'firmly. engagedin the cylindrical body [6 with its rearward end placed firmly intheseat 25 so as to compress the packing annulus; and cause even flow oftheresilient packing material. i In this manner a leak proof joint isproduced between the male and female membersofthe coupling. The forwardend of the inner sleeve 26 is struck inwardly to form an annular end 21upon which the master valve C, of a check valve structure, seatsautomatically when the members A and B of the coupling are disconnected.

The check valve structure comprises two valve members, one the mastervalve C, and the other the by-pass or auxiliary valve D. These valveelements are mounted upon a longitudinal stem 28, the byz-pass valvebeing secured rigidly by the cup 3 l. The master. valvehas a body whichslides freely on the valve stem to the rear of the bypass valve and isformed with a head 32 and a rearwardly tapering end 33 between whichparts is an annular channel 34. A resilient valve, re-

sembling a washer 35 is seated in said channel and is held by the head32 with its rearward face exposed and of sufiicient diameter to seatfirmly against the annularseat 21.. Thus when acting under the force ofcompressed fluid in the female member of the coupling the main valve isadapted to close and check the egress of compressed fluidv from within.The valve structure is retained freely with its stem extending looselythrough the opening within the valve seat 21 by the spider 36 i (seeFig. 6), which is held rigidly on the rear 'By constructing the key'shoulde'rsidd on the head 40 of the male coupling member parallel andtransversely across the head and by constructing the coupling head ofthe female memi loer withcorresponding flat sides to seat in the slot45, a joint is produced which is simple and ward end of the stem 28 andlodges againstthe forward end of the nozzle Hlwhen the male and femalemembers of the coupling are connected;

A helical expansion spring 31, threaded freely over thestem 28 normallyholds the master valve open against the by-pass valve when a connecitionbetween the male and female members of the coupling is completed butpermits the master valveto close as soon as said parts are disenfgaged;A longitudinal channel 38' in the valve jstem28 in addition to the loosesliding fit of the stem'28 in the master valve allows a portionof .thecompressed fluid 'to first by-pass while a connection of.the ma1e andfemale, members of the j j coupling is being made by inserting thenozzle forwardly through" the bore of the socket member,

J4 until thepressure on'both sides of the valve structure is balanced;Immediately as'the pressure becomes equalized the master valve is forced1 opening the by-pass first in apositive manner assures the properfunctioning of the master open by the expansion spring 31; The featureof '1 check valve into' open position and at the same time permitsth'e'quick and positive closing of the valves when the coupling elementsare. disconnected; This compels the parts of the deviceto functioneasily underhigh or medium fluid pres- V sure. 'Without the by-passvalve a connection 1 cannot be made, under high pressure of fiuidjex-Tcept by extreme eifo'rt on the part of the operator. .Bylthe use oftheby-pass valve the eifort requires; to rnake a connection ismaterially refduced.

" The inal e: and femalecoupling elements: are

provedinterlockingmeans which requires assemb ngth i q n ele n s ra. comi d lateral and lengthwise movement of interlocking than previousjoints. The'cylindrical body opposite tongues 53 (see Figs. 1, 3 and 5),which 1 inexpensive to construct and which is stronger it of the femalecoupling member is provided with locking means by which the twointerlocking members of the male and female coupling elements are heldin engagement, or are released to permit separation. This locking meanscomprises a relatively thin sleeve 50 which is free to reciprocate, to alimited extent,

longitudinally on said body. This sleeve is prevented from turning andis limited in longitudinal sliding movement by the threaded screw or key5|, which engages through the sleeve andin the longitudinal'slot orkeyway 52 (see Fig. 3), in the rearward outer position of the tubularbody The sleeve 50 has a pair of diametrally project rearwardly. Thesetongues correspond with and engage in the transverse'slot and betweenthe pair of shoulders 45 onthe swiveled head dfi of the male couplingmember (see Fig.

4),, When the shoulder elements 44 are engaged by the radiatingshoulders 41 as shown in Fig. 1;

The sleeve fio'lisjretained in'interlocking position by. a helicalexpansion spring 54 whichgs freely threaded over the cylindrical body Itand is compressed between an annular shoulder 55 on the "innersurface ofsleeve and aspa'cing'ringid which is placed over theibody l6 and againstthe "threaded body [8 of the hose connector IS. Thus can beeasily. andquickly assembled'or disassemthe male, and femalemembers of the couplingbled When assembled the coupling elements are .female coupling elementswhen the latter'jare f V assembled. When disassembled both themasterpans. To this end the; male member A is pro- Evided with a ho'llowcylindrical head 40 which i is fre'ely swiveled between and heldlongitudinally by a'pair of annular shouldersM and 42 or other suitablfemeans on the tubular seat H. Shoulder 42 is formed by a split end ringwhich locks in an annular groove 43' in the tubular seat I I. ;Theforward end of the head 40 is provided with a pairJof longitudinal and;transversely parallel holding key shoulders 44, between which is atransverse keyreceiving slot 45 (see Figs. 1 and 4). 'In this positionthe nozzle l0 projects for--' wardly throughsaid slot and beyond saidshoulders.

The socket member of thefemale coupling element .is provided with atransverse key head 1 which projects rearwardly from the socket memher[4 and is formed by a pair ofradiating shoulder 41; The width of thekeyhead corre- "sponds substantially with the width ofslot145 so that thekey head maybe inserted longitudinally,

finto' the slot 45'untilitsshoulders'are in a plane free to. swivelwithout breakingv the fluid'connec- I tion,'thusenabling kinks in thehose to be easily releasedandthe hose sections freed from twists.

The packing "annulus 2i! seals the male and and by-passv valves areclosed' upon theirseats automatically by the'force of compressed fluid 1V admittedthrough the hose connection mi in the act of closing thetapering end 33 of the master: f. .va lve serves to. assist incentralizing. said valve 7 upon its seat. As the. coupling elementsvare'reassembled the by-pas's valve 7. is first positively openedby theinsertion of the nozzle ififagainst the spider '36; whereby fluidpressure is allowed-to equalize in bothsections of the couplingelements,

followed by the free opening of the master valve i C automatically bythe force of the expansion 7 spring 3:7. {In this manner a clear passagefor,

cOmpressed fluid is provided through the cou- :pung. The device is thusmade positive to always open or close the connection when fluid underhigher medium pressure is transmitted by the hose connections. 7 I g IInaccordance with the patent statutes we have i I described theprinciples of roperation of ..our;im

provement together'with the construction thereof h "which we nowconsider to represent'the best embodiment thereof, but we desire to haveit un- A coupling, comprising two coaxial male and female couplingmembers designed for end to end coaxial connection, the male memberhaving a longitudinal nozzle and the female member a longitudinal hollowcylindrical body formed with an annular houlder and bore therein toreceive said nozzle, a sleeve held in said body and having an innerannular valve seat on its rearward end, a packing annulus held betweenthe forward annular end of said sleeve and said annular shoulder andembracing said nozzle, a master check valve normally closing said valveseat and having a Icy-passage therethrough entering the female couplingmember, a valve stem on which said master valve is freely reciprocable,an auxiliary valve fixed upon the rearward end of said valve stem andnormally closing said by-passage, an actuating element on the forwardend of said valve stem in the path of the outer end of said nozzle toopen the auxiliary valve ahead of the master check valve when saidactuating element is depressed by the nozzle, and an expansion springinterposed between said actuating element and said master valve wherebyfluid pressure is adapted to be equalized on opposite sides of themaster check valve to permit the latter opening freely.

DAVID F. GEIGER. GLENN C. TRUE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

